Derivation and Quantization of Robust Non-Local Characteristics for Blind Watermarking

1. A system facilitating protection of digital signals, the system comprising: a means for processing; a means for storing, coupled to the means for processing; a means for obtaining a digital signal, wherein the digital signal comprises multi-dimensional data; a means for partitioning a digital signal into a plurality of segments by pseudorandomly segmenting the signal using a secret key, and wherein such segments have the ability to overlap; a means for obtaining a watermark; a means for watermarking the signal with the watermark using quantization index modulation (QIM), wherein such QIM utilizes non-local characteristics of the signal, and wherein the non-local characteristics comprise statistics representative of one or more pseudorandomly dimensioned segments of the signal.

2. A system as recited in claim 1 further comprising a means for normalizing amplitude of a digital signal, wherein such signal is an original, unmarked signal.

3. A system as recited in claim 1 further comprising a means for transforming the signal.

4. A system as recited in claim 1 wherein the statistics comprise one or more finite order moments of a segment.

5. A system as recited in claim 1 further comprising a means for determining a delta-sequence that is representative of the combination of the quantized statistics of the one or more segments.

6. A system as recited in claim 1 further comprising a means for determining a pseudorandom delta-sequence that when combined with the digital signal approximate a combination of the digital signal and the quantized statistics of the one or more segments.

7. A method for facilitating protection of digital signals, the method comprising: a step for obtaining a digital signal, wherein the digital signal comprises multi-dimensional data; a step for partitioning the signal into a plurality of segments by pseudorandomly segmenting the signal using a secret key, and wherein the plurality of segments are pseudorandomly positioned using the secret key, such that said segments have the ability to overlap; a step for obtaining a watermark; a step for, using quantization index modulation (QIM), watermarking the signal with the watermark, wherein such QIM utilizes non-local characteristics of the signal, and wherein the non-local characteristics comprise statistics representative of one or more pseudorandomly dimensioned segments of the signal.

8. A method as recited in claim 7 , wherein the non-local characteristics are representative characteristics of more than a single element of a signal.

9. A method as recited in claim 7 , wherein: the QIM is performed on statistics calculated for each said segment; and the statistics for at least one said segment are based upon non-local characteristics of at least one other segment.

10. A method as recited in claim 7 , wherein the digital signal is selected from a group consisting of a digital music signal, a digital image signal, a digital video signal, and a digital multimedia signal.

11. One or more computer storage media having computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause a computer to perform a method as recited in claim 7 .

12. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 11 , wherein the marked signal generated by the step for watermarking is equivalent to a combination of the digital signal and the combination of the quantized statistics of the plurality segments.

13. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 11 , the method further comprising determining a delta-sequence that is representative of the combination of the quantized statistics of the one or more segments.

14. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 11 , the method further comprising determining a pseudorandom delta-sequence that, when combined with the digital signal, approximates a combination of the digital signal and the quantized statistics of the one or more segments.

15. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 11 , wherein the non-local characteristics are representative characteristics of more than a single element of a signal.

16. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 11 , wherein the digital signal is selected from a group consisting of a digital image signal, a digital video signal, and a digital multimedia signal.

17. A system as recited in claim 1 , wherein: using QIM comprises applying multi-level quantization on an output of a segment-statistics calculator to obtain quantized data; and a segment comprises a group of individual elements, and the non-local characteristics are representative of the group as a whole.

18. A method as recited in claim 7 , wherein: using QIM comprises applying multi-level quantization on an output of a segment-statistics calculator to obtain quantized data; and a segment comprises a group of individual elements, and the non-local characteristics are representative of the group as a whole.